“The music has to be great…”

The latest cliche for the music industry is actually more of a truism. And, fans are really the ones that determine greatness, not the arbiters of good taste. But how to find that winning, multi-talented artist that super-connects with a big audience, and delivers great music?

Just ask the internet.

Almost overnight, the art of A&R (artists & repertoire) has been completely transformed by digital formats, simply because the internet starts pouring feedback immediately onto new artists and songs. “A&R is the easy part now, it’s the rest of the business that’s impossible,” one major label executive told Digital Music News at Musexpo in Los Angeles.

And the shift over the past ten years (or so) has been dramatic. A&R scouts used to troll clubs to get a sense of fan response and potential. Now, if an artist fails to meet certain response thresholds online, there’s probably something wrong with that artist. This goes beyond simple (and sometimes misleading) metrics like MySpace friends, and deeper into areas like YouTube views and trends, quality of fanpage comments, Twitter activity, on-demand streams, and localized file-sharing activity.

Get the picture? If no picture exists online, it becomes difficult to imagine a bigger story downstream. And, that makes it hard to invest precious resources into developing an artist.

On top of that, the selection of a lead-off single is also aided by early online response. On Tuesday, direct-to-fan platform Nimbit tapped Slicethepie to layer the ‘SoundOut’ analytics package into its mix. Among other benefits, SoundOut allows artists to receive targeted feedback on prospective focus tracks.

But is all of this just another case of digital fantasy? The tendency of entrepreneurs and executives to focus on the theoretical – and often, unproven – possibilities of the internet?

At Musexpo, some of the most successful and fan-connected executives pointed to the still-important role of ‘gut,’ that indescribable sixth-sense that remains impossible to distill, analyze, or incorporate into corporate business plans. “Absolutely, it’s all gut and nose,” super-producer Polow da Don told Digital Music News on Tuesday.

“Nose” is the ability to accurately sense coming trends. And gut is just that feeling that something’s right. “Gut is almost magical,” Polow continued.

How magical? Polow da Don has actually leaked songs – against the wishes of the artist and label – just to prove that a hit exists. The most famous example involves the high-profile Usher track, ” “Love In This Club,” a song that eventually garnered huge radio play and fan response.

Eventually, everyone came around – but what a risk. “That could have ruined my career,” the producer continued. “But it was all gut.”